Funding for residential care due to a primary health need isn’t means tested

Funding for residential care due to a primary health need isn’t means tested

Published: 16/04/2015

Recent reports reveal that property wealth amongst retired homeowners has hit an all-time high of £861bn with the average over 65 year old earning nearly £1,200 from their home. Looking over a longer time frame, in the past five years retired homeowners have made an average of £17,000 from their property. As expected retired London homeowners saw the greatest property gains with the South East and East Anglia also performing well. Only those retired homeowners in the North East saw a fall in housing wealth with average losses of £581 over the last six months.

For many of these retired homeowners though, celebrating about their property wealth may be the last thing on their minds. That’s because many people believe that if they require nursing care due to a primary health need, then any funding from the Clinical Commissioning Group will take account of their wealth – including their property wealth. That’s not the case.

Lee Baker, Head of Care Home Fees explains:

“Many people think that, any funding for residential care due to a primary health need is means tested. That is simply not the case. If you or a family member needs nursing care and that’s due to a primary health need then care should be funded by the Clinical Commissioning Group regardless of your financial circumstances.

“Some examples of health conditions which may give rise to a primary health need include Dementia, Alzheimer’s, suffering a stroke or a having a history of heart attacks. Those retired homeowners who are living with anxiety thinking that their property wealth will be quickly eroded if they suffer from a serious health condition such as these and require residential care should take note.

“However one point to particularly be aware of is that, in our experience, many patients have been wrongly assessed or sometimes not assessed at all. That’s why we developed our Care Home Fees service – to help those who have paid these fees unfairly by potentially claiming back some or all of their fees paid.”